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Hey friends, welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast. This is the weekly highlight reel of videos that I have put out on YouTube. So in case you don't know, you can go over to YouTube and watch all my videos. The channel is History and Coffee, and you can just search for my name as well, Heather Tesco, History and Coffee, and you will get it. And you can subscribe there. Thank you to the many people who already subscribe. And then what I've started doing is

weekly highlight reels of some of the videos that have gone out on YouTube that would be of interest to the podcast listeners as well. So thanks for listening. And you can also, like I said, go over and join me on YouTube history and coffee and search for Heather. And there I am. So let's get right into it. Today, we are going to talk about the people Henry VIII didn't kill. Just like seemed like a smaller list than the people he did sometimes. But you know,

It sometimes seems like proximity to Henry meant danger, right? It seems like anybody who rose, Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, all of these people wound up being in a lot of danger, potentially getting killed.

But there were actually people that Henry was really close to that were Henry's friends who managed to survive the entire reign and stay close to Henry the entire time, which is something that, you know, you don't talk about quite as often. So I want to talk about those people today.

So like I said, when we talk about the people who were the closest to Henry VIII, the stories usually do not end well. Heads on spikes, reputations in tatters, families ruined. But a few men managed something remarkable. They stayed in Henry's good graces from the beginning to the end. They were insiders who understood the rules of a deadly game and somehow they walked away unscathed. So who were these unicorns of the Tudor court?

Let's start with the most obvious name on the list, and that would be Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk. Charles Brandon was Henry's childhood bestest friend, the kind of friendship that survived jousts and wars and even a royal scandal. In 1515, of course, Brandon secretly married Henry's sister, Mary Tudor, who was the widow of the French king. Most people would have been executed for that level of cheekiness.

But Brandon got a slap on the wrist and a fine that he actually never really paid. So that tells you everything you need to know about how deep Henry's affection for Charles Brandon ran. Brandon was a constant in Henry's life. He fought alongside him in France. He served on the Privy Council. He even participated in the dissolution of the monasteries. But crucially, he never got too close to court factions or took dangerous political stances.

He was loyal, yes, but he also knew when to stay quiet. He died in 1545 of natural causes, one of the very few men who went from the start of Henry's reign to nearly the end without falling out of favor. Next, we have Sir Thomas Audley. Audley didn't start in Henry's inner circle, but he was a master of survival by adaptation. Right.

Originally a client of Thomas Cromwell, Audley rose fast. He presided over the trials of Sir Thomas More and Anne Boleyn, and eventually he became the Lord Chancellor. That kind of job came with a really short shelf life for most people. But Audley made it last. His secret was loyalty to the crown over ideology. When Cromwell fell, Audley didn't try to save him. When Protestant reform was in fashion, Audley was on board. When it wasn't?

he wasn't he understood that his job wasn't to shape policy it was to carry out henry's will he kept his head down he did the work and he avoided moral stands that might have put him at risk he died peacefully in fifteen forty four

Then we have Thomas Cranmer, one of the most paradoxical figures in Henry's reign. Deeply Protestant, yet protected by a king who often leaned Catholic when it suited him. Cranmer's appointment in 1533 was strategic. Henry needed somebody who would approve the annulment to Catherine of Aragon, and Cranmer delivered. But he wasn't just a puppet. He had a long game in mind, a slow, cautious shift toward reform.

He made enemies, lots of enemies, powerful enemies. But Henry shielded him more than once. In 1543, when the conservatives at court were trying to bring charges against him, Henry warned Cramer ahead of time and turned the tables in a public display of trust. That protection, this is at the same time when Catherine Parr was almost getting executed and the conservatives were gaining in influence and thought they could bring down some of the reformers.

That protection ended the moment Henry died, of course. Under Edward, he was fine, but then under Mary, Cramer was arrested, tried, and eventually burned at the stake. But during Henry's reign, he was untouchable.

Now let's talk about Sir Anthony Denny. You know you're trusted when you're literally managing the king's bathroom schedule. As groom of the stool, Anthony Denny had daily access to Henry VIII that even his most powerful ministers could only dream of.

by the fifteen forties though the role of groom of the stool had evolved and he wasn't just overseeing the privy he was also controlling access to the king managing royal correspondence and acting as a political gatekeeper

In Henry's final years, when illness made him irritable and paranoid, Denny was one of the few people allowed into his chambers. He even delivered the news of the king's impending death and helped to arrange for Henry's last will and testament to be managed in favor of the reformist faction. But he never drew attention to himself. He had influence without ever making himself a target, and that is exactly how you survive in the Tudor court.

Let's talk now about William Padgett. He was not born into power. He worked his way up through competence and discretion. He was a skilled administrator. He started as clerk of the signet and eventually rose to secretary of state. He served Henry loyally and handled some of the most delicate political negotiations of the 1540s, including affairs related to the succession.

Padgett's real strength was that he was totally pragmatic. He didn't tie himself too tightly to any one ideology. Protestant, Catholic, it didn't matter as long as the king's will was done efficiently. He was one of the few men trusted by both Henry and Edward VI, the son, and even served under Mary Tudor later. That adaptability was his superpower and it kept him alive.

Finally, John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford. Russell was a soldier and a statesman, but he never tried to be a kingmaker, and that likely saved his life. He served in France, took part in the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Greece, and helped to manage the dissolution of the monasteries.

Henry rewarded him handsomely with land and titles. The whole area around Covent Garden today was given to John Russell. And actually, if you think about it, Bedford Square, Russell Square, he was the he was John Russell, first Earl of Bedford. So all of that area, Covent Garden, north up through Russell Square, on the

was John Russell's land and was given to him by Henry VIII. Russell knew how to stay out of political firefights, and he focused on running his estates, fighting in wars, and doing what he was told. Simple, effective, and alive.

So what did all of these men have in common? They weren't saints, but they were careful. They stayed useful. They avoided factional bloodbaths. And they never forgot one essential rule. In Henry's court, survival wasn't actually about being right or righteous. It was about being needed. And never, never, ever, but never outshining the king.

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Today, we are going to talk about some of the other children that Henry VIII may have had. It's a question that comes up a lot in Tudor land. Did Henry VIII have more illegitimate children than we know about? We know all about Henry Fitzroy, his only acknowledged illegitimate son with Bessie Blunt.

I've done some episodes. I actually just did a podcast episode on Bessie Blonde and Henry Fitzroy. So if you haven't watched that, go and check that out after this, of course. But beyond him.

There's no official recognition from Henry, and yet the rumors just never stop swirling. There's names that pop up again and again, some with plausible timelines, others that are just full-blown legend. And then there are people like Thomas Stookley, who pretty much declared himself a royal by the sheer force of his ego. So

So today we're going to talk about the Careys, Stooky, Ethelreda, Malti, and a few of the lesser known maybes. Could Henry have more children? All right, let's start with the most obvious place, and that would be the Careys, because if you're looking for plausible, this is where the speculation actually really has some legs. Mary Boleyn was the sister of Anne Boleyn, and she was Henry's mistress in the 1520s. I actually just did an episode on her too a couple of weeks ago, so we'll link to that.

somewhere we don't know exactly when the affair started or ended but we know that it happened and we know it overlapped with the years that she was having children with her husband william carey we know it happened because later when henry was getting a dispensation for his marriage with anne he admitted that he had had relations with mary

So here's the juicy part. Mary's son, Henry Carey, was born in 1526. Her daughter, Catherine, had been born a few years earlier. That puts both children squarely in the window of the affair with the king. Henry Carey, in particular, became a major figure in Elizabeth I's court. He was made Baron Hunston and served as Lord Chamberlain. Elizabeth clearly favored him. Was it because he was her cousin?

or her half-brother. The timing works, the favoritism is suspicious, but Henry VIII never acknowledged him, which might mean nothing or it might mean everything.

If Catherine and Henry Carey were Henry's children, it would have been incredibly awkward when he later married their aunt. So maybe silence was actually the smarter option. It could be that when Catherine Carey was born, she was a girl, so it didn't seem important to acknowledge her as much as with acknowledging Henry Fitzroy. And then by the time Henry Carey was born, he was possibly moving on to Anne, and that just would have been a little bit too much. Or maybe

maybe William Carey was really the father and the whole theory is just wishful thinking for generations of historians and novelists alike. Next up Thomas Stickley. Now this one really is more about swagger than substance.

Stukely was born around 1520, which puts him right in the zone where Henry was active and not just politically. His mother was allegedly a court laundress, or sometimes a maid, depending on which version of the story you're reading or telling. The father, well, according to Stukely, it was the king himself.

Thomas liked to tell people that he could have claimed the throne if he really wanted to, but instead he chose a life of adventure, piracy, and generally being a headache to anyone trying to enforce the law. He ended up fighting in Ireland, allying with Catholic forces in Spain, and dying in Morocco during a disastrous campaign. So, not really the classic path for a Tudor prince.

There's zero, zero, zero solid evidence that Henry VIII had anything to do with his existence, but Thomas never shut up about it. He leaned into the rumor hard because being the king's illegitimate child sounded a lot better than being just another reckless noble son with no inheritance. You have to admire the marketing, if nothing else.

Then there's Ethelretta Malty. Now, her story has just enough shadowy corners to keep Tudor sleuths busy. She was raised as the daughter of John Malty, a wealthy tailor who worked closely with Henry VIII. But in John's will, Ethelretta is described in oddly specific language as his base daughter.

which could just mean illegitimate or it could be something a little bit more, especially since he left her a very generous inheritance, far more than you would expect for a tailor's illegitimate child.

So her mother may have been a laundress at court named Joan Dingley. There's evidence suggesting that Henry provided for her financially, quietly, through Malty. No direct paper trail leads to the king, of course, but that wouldn't be unusual for a daughter born out of wedlock to a woman of low status.

The theory goes that Malti was paid off to raise her as his own, keeping things quiet and ensure that the girl lived comfortably, but without attracting too much attention. If that's true, Ethelreda may have been Henry's daughter, the kind of child he would not have acknowledged because she wasn't politically useful and, well, because like Catherine Carey, she was a girl.

No coronets, no titles, no grand career at court, but enough whispers to keep her name in the mix even centuries later. So let's have one quick sidebar before we wrap things up. Roland de Velville sometimes sneaks into these lists of Henry VIII's alleged children, but let

Let's clear that up right now. Wrong king. Roland was likely the illegitimate son of Henry VII, not Henry VIII. He was born around 1474 and ended up as constable of Beaumarie Castle in Wales. Well-connected, well-treated, never officially acknowledged. The confusion sometimes happens because he had royal favor and because the name Henry Tudor can get tangled generationally when people aren't paying attention.

So while he's an interesting figure, and I have done a video on him, link to it up there, and he might be the king's uncle if you're stretching conspiracy theories, he doesn't belong on the list. Moving on.

Actually, here is the big question. If Henry had more children, why didn't he acknowledge them? After all, he made a big fuss over Henry Fitzroy, gave him a dukedom, paraded him around as proof that his problem wasn't him producing boys, it was with Catherine Veragon. But Fitzroy was a rare case. He was a boy born to a noblewoman, and the mother was unmarried, so there wasn't another man there who could claim paternity. So,

A couple of those things made him politically useful. For the rest, the timing might not have worked, or they might have been daughters, or the mothers were too far down the social ladder to make any acknowledgement worthwhile. It's also possible that Henry just didn't believe the claims or didn't care. His obsession was with legitimate heirs, and the Tudors were image-obsessed control freaks when it came to lineage.

Illegitimate children made things messy. Acknowledging them would raise questions. Better to let them live comfortably in the background and keep the dynastic spotlight where Henry wanted it, on himself and his chosen successors.

So did Henry VIII father more children than history records? Honestly, probably. It's hard to believe a man that had his history and number of mistresses only had one additional child. But the lack of recognition means that we're left with speculation and gossip

and a few intriguing scraps of evidence. If nothing else, these stories show us how obsessed the Tudors and we are still with bloodlines and secrets and scandal. And in a world where rumor could make or break a life, the idea of being the king's child was powerful whether it was true or not. So what do you think? Was Henry secretly the father of half the Tudor court? Or was he just the victim of centuries of wishful thinking?

Thanks so much for listening to this week's YouTube highlights. Remember, you can go over and subscribe. History and Coffee, Heather Tesco, you will find me there. And we'll be back again next week with more highlights from what went out on YouTube throughout the week. Thanks so much. Have a great week.

Thank you.

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